The Versatiles – Mentone residents Angie La Duke and Gabe La Rosa – will sing songs from Frank Sinatra and Patsy Cline at a dance at the Fox Event Center tonight. Dance styles will include Latin, swing, foxtrot and line dancing.

“I think it’s going to be the advent of more dances here,” said Fox Event Center co-owner Suzanne Strauss.

Strauss said feedback has been good so far, and she would like to host dances regularly, as often as twice a month.

“We want to get the dancers excited because it’s what a lot of people are interested in now,” La Duke said.

La Duke and La Rosa have been singing together for 10 years and celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary a week ago. They met through the Kicks, a jazz band based at San Bernardino Valley College.

La Duke sang with the band in the 1980s, and La Rosa came in as a vocalists in the 1990s.

“A professor asked if she could come in to hear the band and I was singing,” La Rosa said.

He had been looking for someone to sing in a production he wrote called “A Tribute to Mr. Sinatra, Songs of Patsy Cline and Others.” One of his daughters had suggested he meet La Duke, adding that she was single. They exchanged CDs of material they recorded.

“I fell in love with her voice,” he said.

La Rosa has used the name the Versatiles since starting a band at his Chicago high school, where he did vocals and drums. He and La Duke have performed around the country at a variety of venues and functions. They draw the line at bars and clubs now, and do mainly private and corporate events, La Rosa said.

“It’s more fun and you don’t have people throwing beer bottles at you,” he said.

La Rosa said he and La Duke emulate, not impersonate, 1940s singers such as Sinatra and Cline.

“We’re just natural singers – we sound like them but do not imitate them,” he said.

La Rosa said the Versatiles offer “Las Vegas-style entertainment.” Tonight they will sing with tracks – they can sing with an accompanist and multi-piece bands, he said.

The couple lead worship at their church in Mentone and work with the homeless. La Rosa said their goal is to help others through their music and service work. La Rosa serves on the board of Home of Neighborly Services in San Bernardino.

La Duke said they are excited to entertain locally.

“We’re very community-oriented and like to bring people out,” La Duke said.

Strauss and her husband Martin re-opened the historic Fox Theater building as an events center in July. The venue has hosted a fashion show, open mic nights and concerts.

The dance is 7 to 10 p.m. today at the Fox Event Center, 123 Cajon St., Redlands. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door.